Three weeks

I may be a little spotty (which may mean 'silent') over the next three weeks.  It is concert time again.  Tomorrow, Saturday the 26th February, is our first rehearsal.  Sunday we will go up to see Eddie and Eveline and the kids.  The following week-end we have rehearsals both days; and the week after that rehearsals Thursday and Friday evening, and concerts both week-end days.

Many have asked about the Christchurch earthquake.  This was the second, of course - the first having occurred last September.  The second was, as the world now knows, more destructive, and involved (current count that I have heard) 113 deaths and some huge number of other miseries.  For those unclear about New Zealand geography, Auckland was not affected.  We are about 750Km away from Christchurch.

Something like this is stunning.  We are not, thank God, Haiti.  But this is us.  There really is nothing I can usefully say about it myself.  None of our friends have lost family, though some, at least, have lost homes.  The lunchtime Mass at the Auckland cathedral today was a special Mass for Christchurch.  The bishop was the celebrant.  We opened singing the 23rd Psalm - and closed with the national anthem.  It was not possible not to shed tears.

God have mercy on Christchurch.  God have mercy on Haiti.  God have mercy on Libya, on Palestine, on the whole of our aching, self-destructive world.